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THE  MARRIAGE  OF  HEAVEN  &  HELL 
AND  A  SONG  OF  LIBERTY 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF 
HEAVEN  AND  HELL 

AND  A  SONG  OF  LIBERTY 


BY  WILLIAM  BLAKE 

WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY 
FRANCIS  GRIFFIN  STOKES 


Published 

for  the  Florence  Press,  London 

by  E.  P.  Dutton  &  Co. 

New  York 

1911 


Therefore  I  print,  nor  vain  my  types  shall  be- 
Heaven,  Earth,  and  Hell  henceforth  shall  live  in 
harmony. 

"Jerusalem." 


T 


EDITOR'S  NOTE 
HE  text  of  the  present  edition  of  "The  Marri- 
age of  Heaven  and  Hell  "and  "A  Song  of  Li- 
berty" has  been  collated  with  the  example  of 
the  original  issue  preserved  in  the  Bodleian  Libra- 
ry, Oxford:  Douce  Collection,  MM.  834. 

Incorrect&archaic  spellings  have  beenretained, 
as  well  as  peculiarities  in  the  use  of  capitals:  the 
punctuation,  however,  has  been  modified,  since  it 
is  often  conjectural  in  the  original,  where  the  im- 
pression is  faint,  and  the  commas  are  generally 
tailless:  apostrophes,  where  omitted,  have  been 
supplied. 

The  Bodleian  copy  is  uncoloured,and  is  lightly 
printed  in  four  or  five  shades  of  ink,  varying  from 
brick-red  to  olive-green.  By  way  of  frontispiece 
there  is  inserted  an  engraving  inscribed  "Our  End 
is  come.  Published  June^,  1793,  by  W.  Blake,  Lam- 
beth"; the  design  is  that  known  as "  The  Accusers," 
in  the  Print-room  of  the  British  Museum.  Below  the 
figure  of  Leviathan -p.  20-appear  the  words  "Op- 
position isTrue . . . ,"  the  remainder  of  the  sentence 
being  illegible.  The  leaves  devoted  to  the  title  and 
"The  Argument"  are  printed  on  only  one  side;  the 
rest,  except  the  last,  on  both  sides.  There  is  no  pagi- 
nation. 


INTRODUCTION 

IN  my  brain  are  studies  6*  chambers  filled  with 
books  and  pictures  of  old,  which  I  wrote  and 
painted  in  ages  of  eternity  before  my  mortal  life ; 
and  these  works  are  the  delight  and  study  of  arch- 
angels. Why  then  should  I  be  anxious  about  the 
riches  or  fame  of  mortality  ? " 

Thus  wrote  William  Blake  to  John  Flaxman  in 
the  closing  days  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Riches 
-even  what  the  least  covetous  of  men  would  have 
deemed  riches -were  never  to  be  his,  but  the  fame 
of  mortality  has  slowly  been  added  to  the  approval 
ofarchangels,  till  now,  lookingbackthrough  ahun- 
dredyears,  we  recognise  in  the  obscure  &  neglected 
writer  "an  eagle  with  wings  and  feathers  of  air," 
soaring  high  above  his  fellows,  and  screened  from 
their  view  by  severing  clouds. 

Blake's  active  years  coincided  with  slack  water 
in  the  tides  of  creative  literature:  the  glassy  current 
of  Augustan  Poetry  had  ebbed  to  stagnation,  &  the 
coming  flood  of  Romance  was  yet  but  a  ripple  on 
the  reef.  In  one  of  his  early  poems  he  cries  reproach- 
fully to  the  Muses: 

"How  have  you  left  the  ancient  love 
That  bards  of  old  enjoyed  in  you ! 

7 


INTRODUCTION 
The  languid  strings  do  scarcely  move. 
The  sound  is  forced,  the  notes  are  few  ! " 
and  when  the  "Lyrical  Ballads"  revealed  Words- 
worth and  Coleridge  to  a  somewhat  listless  world, 
Blake's  life-workas  a  poet  was  almost  over,  though 
his  pencil  and  graver  hadyet  some  of  their  noblest 
tasks  to  perform. 

The  influence  of  "Ossian'and,  to  a  less  extent,  of 
Chatterton,  may  be  traced  in  his  verse,  but  that 
Blake  was  in  any  real  sense  a  type  of  Romanticism 
it  is  hard  to  admit:  the  current  flowed  past  the  soli- 
tary wanderer  on  the  shore,  but  did  not  bear  him 
with  it;  it  scarcely  even  reached  his  feet.  In  fact,  a 
genius  so  original  as  Blake,  though  of  necessity  con- 
ditioned by  his  epoch,  refuses  to  be  assigned  to  a 
group:  the  comet  obeys  the  planetary  laws,  yet, 
despite  astronomers,  it  remains  a  portent. 

WILLIAM  BLAKE  was  born  ini757,  at  No. 
28,  Broad  Street,  W.,  the  residence  and 
place  of  business  of  his  father  James  Blake, 
hosier  and  nonconformist.  The  house  still  stands, 
and  may  easily  be  reached  from  Oxford  Street  by 
way  of  Poland  Street.  An  inscription  over  the  lin- 
tel of  the  humble  shop  informs  the  visitor  to-day 
that  a  certain  Angel  there  dispenses  groceries  ^ 
while  the  dingy  locality  is  all  athrob  with  the  cease- 
less roar  of  great  dynamos,  a  manifestation  of  En- 
8 


INTRODUCTION 
ergy  which  it  is  to  be  hoped  is  an  "eternal  delight" 
to  the  inhabitants. 

William  was  no  ordinary  child.  At  the  age  of  four 
he  saw  God's  face  at  the  window,  and,  by  his  own 
admission,  was  dreadfully  scared.  Later  on,  he  was 
somewhat  unjustly  chastised  for  boasting  of  having 
met  the  prophet  Ezekiel-a  future  guest -friend. 
Once,  on  a  ramble  through  the  pleasant  lanes  and 
meadows  of  Peckham  Rye,  the  lad  saw  a  tree  all 
aflutter  with  angels;  but,  now  that  we  have  learnt 
what  to  look  for,  we  too  may  see  the  vision  in  the 
translucent  lilac  or  the  jewelled  almond,  irradiated 
by  the  sun  of  Spring,  with  a  blue  heaven  beyond. 

When  he  was  fourteen,  young  Blake  was  ap- 
prenticed to  Basire,  a  well-known  engraver,  and 
for  the  rest  of  his  life  the  practice  of  engraving 
formed  his  only  certain  means  of  support.  Upon  his 
early  progress  in  art  limitations  of  space  forbid  us 
to  dwell,  though,  as  will  immediately  be  seen,  it  is 
difficult  to  sever  Blake  the  poet  from  Blake  the 
painter. 

In  1782  he  married  Sophia  Boucher,  a  graceful 
girl,  but  quite  illiterate,  and  sprung  from  a  stock 
humbler  than  his  own.  She  was  Blake's  inseparable 
companion  and  helper,  and  outlived  him;  pathos 
and  humour  are  blended  in  her  one  recorded  com- 
plaint, namely  that  her  husband  "was  so  little  with 
her,"  for  "he  was  incessantly  away  from  her  in 

9 


INTRODUCTION 
Paradise."  Of  her  we  shall  have  occasion  to  speak 
again. 

In  1783  there  appeared  a  thin  volume,  of  some 
seventy  pages,  entitled  "Poetical  Sketches.  By 
W.  B."  The  contents  also  include  two  prose 
pieces,  6-  "King  Edward  the  Third,"a  fragment  of 
"  Shakespearean "  drama. 

This  book,  which  is  now  of  extreme  rarity,  was 
printed  at  the  expense  of  Flaxman  and  another 
friend  of  Blake's,  the  Rev.  Henry  Mathew.  The 
latter  wrote  an  "  Advertisement,"  in  which  he  men- 
tions that  "the  following  Sketches  were  the  pro- 
duction of  untutored  youth,  commenced  in  his 
twelfth,  and  occasionally  resumed  by  the  author 
till  his  twentieth  year." 

The  fact  that  the  "  Sketches"  were  never,  strictly 
speaking,  published,  is  in  itself  enough  to  account 
for  their  failing  to  attract  the  slightest  notice.  Yet 
their  promise,  as  the  work  of  so  young  a  writer, 
was  of  the  fairest. 

The  magic  of  some  of  the  lyrics  could  not  have 
been  attained  -  scarcely  even  approached  -  by  any 
poet  of  the  day,  except  Burns,  whose  career  was 
nearly  at  an  end.  In  Mr  W.  M.  Rossetti's  words, 
"they  have  the  same  sort  of  pungent  perfume, -in- 
definable, but  not  evanescent,  -  that  belongs  to  the 
choicest  Elizabethan  songs." 

Not  doubtful,  it  would  seem,  was  the  future  of  the 
boy  of  fourteen  who  could  write : 

10 


INTRODUCTION 
"  How  sweet  I  roamed  from  field  to  field, 
And  tasted  all  the  Summer's  pride, 
Till  I  the  Prince  of  Love  beheld, 
Who  in  the  sunny  beams  did  glide. 
He  showed  me  lilies  for  my  hair. 
And  blushing  roses  for  my  brow; 
He  led  me  through  his  gardens  fair. 
Where  all  his  golden  pleasures  grow." 
Yet,  after  all,  the  auguries  of  the  "Poetical 
Sketches"  were  misleading.  They  seemed  to  pre- 
sage the  advent  of  a  great  master  of  lyrical  form, 
a  polisher  of  imperishab!e"jewels  five  words  long," 
a  poetic  despot  whose  facile  Muse  would  obey  her 
lord's  lightest  fancy;  they  conveyed  no  hint  of  the 
later  giant,  struggling  with  words  as  though  they 
were  fetters,  and  striving  to  deliver  a  message  to 
the  world  which  no  language  existed  to  express, 
and  which  poetry  and  art  allied  could  but  darkly 
shadow  forth;  thoughts,  in  fact, such  as  those  which 
Swedenborg  had  called  "inexpressible  angelic 
ideas." 


IN  1789,  Blake,  who  had  removed  to  No.  28  Po- 
land Street,  only  a  few  hundred  yards  from  his 
birthplace.found  himself  with  an  empty  purse  & 
a  little  bundle  of  manuscripts  which  he  was  unable, 
through  lack  of  means,  to  publish  in  the  ordinary 

II 


INTRODUCTION 
way.  He  accordingly  had  recourse  to  a  mode  of 
production  suggested  by  the  processes  of  the  en- 
graver. He  wrote  his  verses  -  backwards,  of  course  - 
with  varnish  on  metal  plates,and  embellished  them 
with  drawings  in  the  same  medium.  The  exposed 
metal  was  then  bitten  away  by  an  acid,  leaving  the 
words  and  designs  in  relief. 

Later  we  shall  find  this  method  alluded  to  as 
"printing  in  the  infernal  method,  by  corrosives, 
which  in  Hell  are  salutary  and  medicinal,  melting 
apparent  surfaces  away,  and  displaying  the  infinite 
which  was  hid." 

From  plates  thus  treated  Blake  took  impressions 
in  ink  of  a  light  tint,  and  finally,  with  his  wife's  aid  - 
for  she  had  proved  an  apt  pupil  -he  coloured  each 
page  by  hand. 

The  result  was  the  "Songs  of  Innocence."  A 
picture-book  for  children,  it  might  be  supposed 
from  the  description  -  nothing  more,  albeit  the 
loving  work  of  one  who  said  in  his  old  age  to  a  little 
girl,  "May  God  make  the  world  to  you,  my  child, 
as  beautiful  as  it  has  been  to  me." 

Yet  to  those  who  have  never  been  fortunate 
enough  to  see  the  original  work,  words  must  fail  to 
convey  an  idea  of  its  witchery.  On  first  opening 
its  pages  we  experience  an  altogether  new  sensa- 
tion. No  mere  illustrated  volume  of  verse  lies  be- 
fore us,  but  an  unparalleled  complex  of  poetry  and 

12 


INTRODUCTION 
painting.  As  the  genius  who  devised  the  centaur, 
blending  the  characters  of  horse  and  man,  pro- 
duced a  new  form  of  unexpected  beauty,  neither 
equine  nor  human,  so  Blake,  mingling  the  words 
of  the  poet  with  the  designs  of  the  artist,  produced 
an  effect  hitherto  unknown.  Though  the  dainty 
miniatures  of  an  illuminated  missal,  in  all  the  bra- 
very of  their  golden  framework,  delight  &  dazzle 
the  eye,  they  leave  the  emotions  untouched;  but, 
in  some  inexplicable  way,  the  "Songs  of  Inno- 
cence" make  a  direct  appeal  to  the  heart.  The 
words  are  entwined  with  tendrils,  and  embowered 
in  foliage;  between  the  verses  there  flash  out 
glimpses  of  radiant  skies  &  cool  pastures,  of  sport- 
ive children  and  browsing  flocks.  The  overhang- 
ing blossoms,  in  emulationof  the  immortal  hyacinth, 
seem  to  fling  from  their  bells  a  delicate  peal  to  be 
echoed  by  the  music  of  the  songs  -  "  a  confusion  of 
delight;"  and,  finally,  by  the  most  subtle  art,  over 
all  things  there  is  cast,  to  borrow  a  phrase  from 
Swinburne's  impassioned  eulogy,  "a  pure  fine  veil 
of  light,  softer  than  sleep,  and  keener  than  sun- 
shine." 

The  verse  of  the  "Songs  of  Innocence,"  and  of 
the  "Songs  of  Experience"  which  followed  five 
years  later,  amply  fulfilled  the  promise  of  the 
"Poetical  Sketches,"  but  it  is  needless  to  dwell 
upon  poems  which  are  now  to  be  found  in  every 

13 


INTRODUCTION 
anthology,  and  upon  which  Blake's  title  to  fame  as 
a  poet  is  popularly  based. "  The  Lamb,"the"Cradle 
Song,"  "The  Tiger,"  and  many  more,  have  now 
put  on  immortality. 

"As  we  read  them,"  says  Gilchrist,  "fugitive 
glimpses  open,  clear  as  brief,  of  our  buried  child- 
hood, of  an  unseen  world,  present,  past,  to  come; 
we  are  endowed  with  a  new  spiritual  sight,  with 
unwonted  intuitions,  bright  visitants  from  fair 
realms  of  thought,  which  ever  elude  us,  ever  hover 
near." 

In  the  pre-existence  of  the  soul,  Blake,  indeed, 
had  a  firm  belief.  Crabb  Robinson  relates  that 
when  he  read  him  the  passage  fromWordsworth's 
famous  "  Ode,"  ending, 

"Whither  is  fled  the  visionary  gleam? 
Where  is  it  now,  the  glory  and  the  dream?" 
Blake  was  thrown  "almost  into  an  hysterical  rap- 
ture." The  opening  quotation  of  this  Introduction 
was  not  intended  wholly  as  an  allegory. 


THE  Book  of  Thel,"  an  ethereal  and  mystical 
poem,  was  engraved,  (S*  similarly  embellished, 
very  shortly  after  the  "Songs  of  Innocence," 
and  a  year  later,  namely  in  1790, "  The  Marriage  of 
Heaven  and  Hell"  appeared. 
We  make  bold  to  lay  marauding  hands  upon  the 
14 


INTRODUCTION 
opening  sentences  of  Swinburne's  appreciation  of 
this  wonderful  production.  He  speaks  of  it  as  the 
greatest  of  all  Blake's  books: 

"A  work,  indeed,  which  we  rank  as  about  the 
greatest  produced  by  the  eighteenth  century  in  the 
line  of  high  poetry  and  spiritual  speculation.  .  .  . 
Here  for  once  he  has  written  a  book  as  perfect  as 
his  most  faultless  song,  as  great  as  his  most  imperfect 
rhapsody.  .  .  .  The  book  teems  with  heresies  and 
eccentricities;  every  sentence  bristles  with  some 

paradox The  humour  is  of  that  fierce  grave  sort 

whose  cool  insanity  of  manner  is  more  horrible 
and  more  obscure  to  the  Philistine  than  any  sharp 
edge  of  burlesque  or  glitter  of  irony;  it  is  huge, 
swift,  inexplicable.  The  rarity  and  audacity  of 
thoughts  and  words  are  incomparable:  not  less  so 
their  fervour  and  beauty." 

The  designs  which  accompany  "The  Marriage 
of  Heaven  and  Hell,"  though  similarly  engraved, 
have  an  effect  widely  different  from  that  produced 
by  the  tender  adornments  of  the  "Songs."  Fortu- 
nate, indeed,  is  the  possessor  of  this  thin  volume-- 
now  scarcely  to  be  bought  for  twenty  times  its 
weight  in  gold -who  can  study  at  leisure  its  con- 
summate pages.  In  some  instances  the  relevancy 
of  the  drawings  may  be  obscure,  &  their  lurid  atmo- 
sphere is  everywhere  charged  with  mystery;  but 
in  them  are  mingled  the  beautiful,  the  grotesque 

13 


INTRODUCTION 
and  the  terrible.  Graceful  figures,  male  and  female, 
dart  forth  from  sanguine  flames;  "the  Giants  who 
formed  this  world"  crouch  in  their  chains;  "the 
monstrous serpent"ofthe  fourth  Memorable  Fancy 
churns  the  dark  billows  of  the  nether  deep  with  the 
iridescentsplendourofhis  coils.  The  air  we  breathe 
is  neither  of  earth  nor  of  fairy-land,  but  of 
"an  ultimate  dim  Thule, 
Out  of  Space  -  out  of  Time." 

This  is,  of  course,  no  place  for  a  general  discus- 
sion of  Blake's  art,  but  since  in  the  succeeding 
works  the  pictorial  element  becomes  increasingly 
prominent,  a  brief  reference  to  one  feature  of  his 
illustrations,  which  is  observable  in  the  "Marriage," 
may  be  allowable  ere  we  dismiss  the  subject. 

Although  the  beauty  of  the  human  form  was  ever 
in  Blake's  eyes -as  with  the  Greeks,  his  professed 
masters -the  supreme  subject  of  the  highest  art,  he 
nevertheless  despised  models.  "Models  are  diffi- 
cult," he  said,  "enslave  one,  eff^ace  from  one's  mind 
a  conception  or  reminiscence  which  was  better." 
It  is  not  easy  to  avoid  the  reflection  that  perhaps, 
after  all,  it  was  Blake's  poverty  and  not  his  will  that 
consented  to  the  deprivation,  but  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  it  is  to  this  cause  that  the  occasional  lack 
of  due  proportion  in  his  figures  is  to  be  attributed - 
divergencies  more  glaring,  perhaps,  in  the  eyes  of 
the  trained  artist  and  anatomist  than  to  the  layman 

i6 


INTRODUCTION 
fascinated  by  the  irresistible  beauty  of  the  compo- 
sition before  him.  Mr  De  Selincourt  goes  so  far  as 
say  that  "among  his  nudes  are  numbered  some  of 
the  worst  atrocities  ever  committed  in  the  name  of 
art."  If  this  be  so,  great  indeed  is  the  genius  that  can 
make  such  atrocities  deHghtful !  And  is  there  not 
compensation  in  Blake's  avoidance  of  so-called  re- 
alism? How  utterly  void  of  earthly  taint  are  many 
of  his  pictured  visions !  The  floating  forms  seem  not 
even  crippled  by  gross  mechanic  laws  of  earth  and 
air;  they  glide  at  will  through  the  impalpable  ether 
of  a  fetterless  heaven. 

We  can  formally  analyse  "The  Marriage  of 
Heaven  and  Hell"  into  five  constituents,  viz.  the 
"Argument"  or  prelude;  "The  Voice  of  the  Devil"; 
a  series  of  "Memorable  Fancies";  a  collection  of 
"Proverbs  of  Hell";  and  what  may  be  termed  the 
Commentary,  forming  the  connective  tissue  of  the 
whole. 

Although  he  alludes  to  the  works  of  Paracelsus 
and  Behmen,  there  is  no  evidence  that  Blake  was 
more  than  superficially  acquainted  with  them;  on 
the  other  hand,  from  his  youth  up,  he,  as  well  as  his 
friend  Flaxman,  had  been  under  the  sway  of  Swe- 
denborg,  whose  writings  were,  indeed,  as  familiar 
to  him  as  the  Bible. 

Competent  knowledge  of  the  tenets  G*  methods 
of  the  Swedish  mystic  is  therefore  necessary  for  the 

c  17 


INTRODUCTION 
due  understanding  of  Blake,  but  since  it  would  be 
impossible  to  convey  such  knowledge  even  in  fifty 
of  these  pages,  we  can  only  pause  to  mention  a  few 
salient  and  apposite  points  in  Swedenborg's  vast 
system : 

All  that  is,  exists  by  ceaseless  emanation  from 
God.  Creation  is  an  unending  act.  God  alone  truly 
lives.  In  this  world  Thought  and  Will  are  condi- 
tioned by  Time  and  Space:  in  the  next,  Time  and 
Space  are  controlled  by  Will.  The  Bible-  certain 
books  excepted  -  has  a  spiritual  as  well  as  a  natural 
sense:  every  word  of  it  is  therefore  holy.  Nothing 
exists  in  the  natural  world  which  has  not  corre- 
spondence with  the  spiritual  world.  The  symbolism 
of  the  scriptures  is  carried  out  in  the  minutest  de- 
tail: "Butter  denotes  what  is  celestial";  "Cakes  de- 
note the  good  of  spiritual  love";  "Fish  denote 
scientific  truths."  Not  seldom  a  symbol  denotes  a 
pair  of  contraries;  "Cows  denote  truths,  they  also 
denote  falsities."  There  are  three  Heavens  6*  three 
orders  of  Angels.  All  Angels  have  once  lived  on 
earth.  There  is  no  such  person  as  Satan;  Satan  is 
Hell.  All  devils  were  once  men.  All  societies  in  the 
heavens  constitute,  as  it  were,  one  man;  hence 
Heaven  is  called  the  Grand  Man.  Even  while  on 
earth,  every  man,  as  to  his  soul,  forms  part  of  some 
member  or  organ  of  the  Grand  Man.  Nevertheless 
Heaven  and  Hell  are  not  in  Space,  but  are  only 

i8 


INTRODUCTION 
internal  spiritual  states.  Entrance  into  the  spiritual 
world  is.  in  fact,  merely  the  opening  of  an  inner 
consciousness. 

All  these  divine  truths,  and  many  others,  were 
revealed  to  Swedenborg  in  visions.  Furthermore 
it  is  important  to  observe  that,  in  the  spiritual  world, 
the  seer  beheld  the  Last  Judgment  and  the  dawn 
of  a  new  Dispensation.  Writing  in  17^8,  he  declares, 
"  How  the  Last  Judgment  was  accomplished,  it  was 
granted  me  to  see  from  beginning  to  end. . .  .  This 
Last  Judgment  was  commenced  in  the  beginning  of 
the  preceding  year  1737,  &  was  fully  accomplished 
at  the  end  of  that  year."  Now  this  was  the  date  of 
Blake's  birth,  and  if  we  add  thirty-three  years -the 
length  of  Christ's  life  on  earth -we  reach  1790,  the 
date  of"  The  Marriage  of  Heaven  and  Hell. "  "And 
lo !  Swedenborg  is  theangel  sitting  at  the  tomb;  his 
writings  are  the  linen  clothes  folded  up."  In  this 
splendid  and  daring  metaphor,  therefore,  Blake  de- 
picts the  release  of  his  own  imagination  from  the 
thraldom  of  the  earthlier  mystic -its  resurrection 
and  ascension  into  the  freedom  of  a  transcendental 
heaven. 

The  "Memorable  Fancies"  are  written  in  deli- 
berate imitation  of  Swedenborg's  "Memorable 
Relations, "  an  imitation  often  amounting  to  parody, 
in  which  Blake  satirizes  with  grim  humourthe  some- 
what cold-blooded  visions  of  his  erstwhile  master. 

19 


INTRODUCTION 

Such  matter-of-fact  preambles  as  "I  was  in  a 
Printing-house  in  Hell,"  or,  "As  I  was  walking 
among  the  fires  of  Hell,  delighted  with  the  enjoy- 
ments of  Genius,"  find  numerous  counterparts  in 
the  "Arcana  Caelestia";  even  the  reference  to  the 
stench  in  the  baboons' den  seems  a  satiric  thrust  at 
the  many  pages  of  that  work  which  reek  with  ol- 
factory horrors. 

Measureless,  indeed,  is  the  scorn  which  Blake 
pours  on  the  self-conceit  of  his  former  master.  He 
compares  him  to  a  man  who,  because  he  was  a  little 
wiser  than  a  monkey  which  he  carried  about  for  a 
show,  thought  himself  wiser  than  seven  men.  We 
are  reminded  of  Swedenborg*s  own  interview  with 
Xavier  in  the  spiritual  world,  when  the  latter  con- 
fesses that  "he  becomes  idiotic  as  often  as  he  thinks 
himself  a  saint." 

No  small  part  of  the  "Marriage"  was,  moreover, 
intended,  in  Mr  Ellis's  words,  "to  rebuke  Sweden- 
borg  for  having  used  his  faculty  of  vision  to  no 
better  purpose  than  that  of  reducing  all  the  visions 
of  scriptural  writers  to  perpetual  references  to  the ; 
incarnation  and  to  the  human  form  of  God,  and  to 
the  praise  of '  goodness. '  He  is  derided  for  not  hav- 
ing made  prophetic  books  of  his  own." 

"Now  we  have  seen  my  lot,"  Blake  cries  to  the 
patronising  and  pusillanimous  angel  in  the  fourth 
Memorable  Fancy, "  shall  I  show  you  yours  ? "  Then 

20 


INTRODUCTION 
seizing  the  angel  in  his  arms,  he  first  flings  himself 
and  his  companion  into  the  body  of  the  Sun,  and 
then  leaps  into  the  void  beyond  Saturn.  There  in  a 
phantasmal  church  he  opens  the  Bible,  "and  lo !  it 
was  a  deep  pit,  into  which  I  descended,  driving  the 
angel  before  me." 

Such  was  the  dreary  limbo  to  which  Sweden- 
borg's  "analytics"  led.  Blake,  accordingly,  under- 
takes to  show  the  more  excellent  way: 
"  I  must  Create  a  System,  or  be  enslav'd  by  another 

Man's; 
I  will  not  Reason  &  Compare :  my  business  is  to  Cre- 
ate." 


THE  "Proverbs  of  Hell"  sprang  from  an  inde- 
pendent germ.  In  1788  there  was  published  in 
London  a  small  volume  bearing  the  title, 
"Aphorisms  on  Man:  translated  from  the  original 
manuscript  of  the  Rev.  John  Caspar  Lavater,  Citi- 
zen of  Zuric." 

The  translation  was  the  work  of  Lavater*s  fellow- 
countryman,  the  painter  Henry  Fuseli,  who  also 
designed  the  frontispiece,  which  Blake  engraved. 
The  "Aphorisms"  exhibit,  for  the  most  part,  a 
somewhat  insipid  sententiousness,  and  might  be 
termed  typical  specimens  of  copy-book  philoso- 
phy, were  it  not  that  some  of  them  attain  the  in- 

21 


INTRODUCTION 
tolerable  length  of  a  page  and  more.  For  Blake, 
however,  the  little  book  had  a  strange  attraction, 
and  he  enriched  its  pages  with  "marginalia"  which 
have  fortunately  been  preserved.  They  are  to  be 
found  in  their  entirety  in  Mr  Ellis's  indispensable 
work,  "The  Real  Blake,"  but  two  or  three  of  them 
may  be  quoted  here:  "You  enjoy  with  wisdom  or 
folly,"  writes  Lavater,  "as  the  gratification  of  your 
appetites  capacitates  or  unnerves  your  powers." 
"  False ! "  comments  Blake,  "for  weak  is  the  joy  which 
is  never  wearied."  "A  sneer  is  often  the  sign  of 
heartless  malignity,"  runs  the  aphorism:  "Damn 
sneerers!"  assents  the  annotator  eagerly.  Again, 
when  Lavater,  with  unwonted  irony,  suggests  that 
he  who  would  fain  be  popular  must  "court  medio- 
crity, avoid  originality,  and  sacrifice  to  fashion," 
Blake  briskly  adds,  "and  go  to  hell ! " 

Undoubtedly  the  "Aphorisms"  soon  afterwards 
journeyed  to  that  fiery  but  splendid  region,  and 
were  there  sublimated  &  transmuted  into  the  pure 
gold  ofthe"Proverbs,"in  the  crucible  of  thedaunt- 
less  poet's  brain. 

The  "Proverbs  of  Hell"  contain  the  pith  of 
Blake's  moral,  or  unmoral,  philosophy.  But  in  tast- 
ing their  quality,  the  uninitiated  reader  must  be 
ever  mindful  of  their  author's "  lust  of  paradox, "  the 
violence  &  perversity  of  his  language,  his  determi- 
nation to  deliver  his  Gospel  with  an  almost  reckless 

22  I 

I 


INTRODUCTION 
disregard  of  being  misunderstood,  his  apparent  de- 
light in  breaking  with  his  precious  balms  the  heads 
of  Pharisee  and  Philistine  alike.  The  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  undoubtedly  suffered  violence  at  Blake's 
hands,  through  his  very  eagerness  to  force  his  way 
into  it. 

Mr  Arthur  Symons  has  recently  made  the  preg- 
nant suggestion  that  the  "Marriage"  anticipates 
the  most  significant  paradoxes  of  Nietzsche.  "No 
one,"  he  writes,  "can  think  and  escape  Nietzsche; 
but  Nietzsche  has  come  after  Blake,  and  will  pass 
before  Blake  passes." 

Both,  certainly,  insist  upon  the  supreme  virtue  of 
Energy;  Energy,  moreover,  to  borrow  the  terms 
of  Dynamics,  not  merely  potential,  6*  held  wholly 
in  check  by  Reason,  but  kinetic,  and  manifesting 
itself  in  motion,  and  impact,  6"  transformation,  and 
progression.  In  such  a  view,  the  Christianity  of  the 
sects  is  the  religion  of  the  coward  and  the  weakling, 
since  in  it,  to  quote  the  author  of  "The  Quintes- 
sence of  Nietzsche,"  "everything  that  elevates 
Life,  that  stimulates  Life,  is  kept  carefully  out  of 
sight.  The  shadow  of  death  hangs  over  all." 
And  in  precisely  this  spirit  of  revolt  flames  Blake's 
splendid  paradox,  "Sooner  murder  an  infant  in  its 
cradle  than  nurse  unacted  desires;"  while  the  final 
exhortation  of  the  last  Memorable  Fancy-" I  tell 
you,  no  virtue  can  exist  without  breaking  these  ten 

23 


INTRODUCTION 
commandments"- hurls  a  like  defiance  against  a 
moral  system  builtwholly  of  "Thou-shalt-nots,"and 
the  inevitable  hypocrisy  that  it  entails. 

"The  worship  of  God  is.  Honouring  his  gifts  in 
other  men,  each  according  to  his  genius,  and  loving 
the  greatest  men  best.  Those  who  envy  or  calum- 
niate great  men  hate  God,  for  there  is  no  other 
God."  So  spake  the  devil  in  a  flame  of  fire  to  the 
angel  who  sat  upon  a  cloud,  anticipating,  it  would 
seem,  the  doctrine  of  the  Over-man,  and  greatly 
disconcerting  the  angel.  Nevertheless,  it  is  hard  to 
admit  that  Nietzsche's  ideal  would  have  found  full 
acceptance  with  Blake. The  stern  and  self-centred 
victor  in  the  struggle  for  existence,  secure  in  the 
"lordly  pleasure-house"  of  his  power,  all-pitiless 
towards 

"the  darkening  droves  of  swine 
That  range  on  yonder  plain," 
seems  to  accord  but  ill  with  the  ideal  of  the  sweet 
singer  of  "Mercy,  Pity,  Peace  6-  Love."  For  Blake, 
"  The  Christ  which  is  to  be  "  was  neither  the  Super- 
man northe  Grand  Man  of  Swedenborg's  fantastic 
visions,  but  Humanity  unified  6"  eternized  through 
imagination  and  emotion. 


24 


INTRODUCTION 

EVERY  one  who  indulges  in  abstract 
thought  at  all  is  a  metaphysician  of  one 
school  or  another,  &  if  it  were  necessary  to 
classify  Blake's  metaphysical  views,  as  belonging  to 
any  definite  system  of  thought  existing  in  his  days, 
we  should  be  probably  led  to  assign  him  a  place 
under  the  banner  of  Berkeley;  though  it  may  well 
be  doubted  whether  he  had  ever  read  a  line  of 
the  Bishop's  works. 

For  neither  the  poet  northe  philosopher  has  the 
material  universe  any  existence,  except  as  a  series, 
more  or  less  orderly,  of  phenomena  or  perceptions. 
Matter  is  a  mere  mode  of  the  mind.  It  is  emphat- 
ically laid  down  in  "  The  Marriage  of  Heaven  and 
Hell  "that  "Man  has  no  body  distinct  from  his  soul, 
for  that  which  is  called  Body  is  a  portion  of  Soul 
discerned",  i.e.,  bounded,  "by  the  five  senses,  the 
chief  inlets  of  Soul  in  this  age";  and  what  is  true  of 
the  body  is,  a  fortiori,  true  of  matter  in  general. 

Berkeley,  in  the  latest  stage  of  his  philosophic 
development -as  the  author  of  "  Siris,"  not  a  little 
tinged  with  Neoplatonism  and  mysticism -would 
assuredly  have  been  found  a  more  congenial  com- 
panion by  Blake  than  Aristotle  and  the  dry  bones 
of  his  "Analytics." 

"  Human  souls, "  writes  Berkeley, "  in  this  low  situa- 
tion, borderingon  mere  animal  life,  bear  the  weight 
and  see  through  theduskof  a  gross  atmosphere.  .  . 

25 


INTRODUCTION 
And  if  by  some  extraordinary  effort  the  mind  should 
surmount  this  dusky  region,  and  snatch  a  glimpse  of 
pure  light,  she  is  soon  drawn  backwards  and  de- 
pressed by  the  heaviness  of  the  animal  nature  to 
which  she  is  chained.  And  if  again  she  chanceth 
...  to  spring  upwards,  a  second  relapse  speedily 
succeeds  into  this  region  of  darkness  and  dreams." 

So  we  read  in  the  "  Marriage"-"  Man  has  closed 
himself  up  till  he  sees  all  things  thro'  narrow  chinks 
of  his  cavern." 

But  Blake  believed  that  he  knew  the  secret,  and 
possessed  the  faculty,  of  obtaining  more  than  a 
glimpse  of  the  pure  light;  he  believed,  too,  that 
what  men  call  Reality  is  in  truth  but  a  dreamland, 
and  that  Imagination  alone  "in  this  age"  can  lead 
us  to  the  Real. 

The  perplexity,  in  fact,  felt  as  we  strive  to  form 
a  definite  conception  of  Blake's  intellectual  fibre, 
may  be  lessened,  much  that  is  paradoxical  or  in- 
coherent in  his  utterances  with  pen  &  pencil  may 
be  forgiven,  if  we  realize  that  his  abnormality  con- 
sisted in  an  extreme  development  of  the  faculty  of 
creative  imagination.  Some  will  look  upon  such 
hypertrophy  with  the  eyes  of  the  pathologist,  others 
with  envy,  as  the  means  of  spiritual  exaltation  be- 
yond the  hope  of  common  men.  But,  however  it  be 
classed,  one  of  its  effects  is  undoubted  -  namely, 
.that  while  not  necessarily  conferring  on  its  posses- 

26 


INTRODUCTION 
sor  an  exceptional  power  of  communicating  to  his 
fellows  supersensuous  ideas  nobler  and  lovelier 
than  they  could  themselves  conceive,  it  can  scarce- 
ly fail  to  embarrass  him  in  dealing  with  more  limited 
conceptions.  Imagination  thus  exalted  approaches, 
in  short,  a  new  sense,  incomprehensible  to  the  or- 
dinary man.  Imagine  a  Gulliver  cast  upon  an  island 
of  the  sightless.  Sharing  the  four  senses  of  the  inhabi- 
tants, he  enters  into  all  their  narrower  thoughts  and 
feelings.  In  his  speech,  however,  it  behoves  him  to 
bewary,lesthe  stumble  upon  allusions  and  associa- 
tions incomprehensible  to  his  hearers.  As  a  judge 
of  scents  and  sounds  and  tactile  impressions  he  finds 
himself  indeed  somewhat  below  the  average  Islan- 
der. His  halting  speech  and  apparent  apathy  soon 
brand  him  as  a  rather  stupid  fellow.  Toleration  is 
succeeded  by  derision.  At  length,  exasperated  by 
the  scoffs  of  the  blind,  he  harangues  his  hosts  in  a 
jargon  conveying  little  meaning  to  their  ears : "  You 
prate  of  melodies  and  odours,  but  what  know  you 
of  the  shifting  iris  of  the  dove,  or  the  crimson  of  the 
rose  ?  What  of  the  rainbow  and  the  cloud  ?  What 
of  the  starry  vault  ?  Your  souls  are  impotent  to  enjoy 
these  marvels  and  delights ! " 

"  We  always  thought  him  a  fool,"  is  the  surly 
reply,"  and  now  we  know  him  to  be  a  madman  ! " 

And  somewhat  thus  -  for  here  we  can  speak  but 
by  parable  -somewhat  thus  it  was  with  Blake.  Yet 

27 


INTRODUCTION 
we  must  not  forget  that,  in  his  view,  the  imagination 
was  something  far  beyond  a  new  sense:  he  would 
not  have  bartered  it  for  the  thousand  senses  of 
Micromegas.  Before  his  incorporeal  eyes,  looking 
through  "magic  casements,"  open  to  him  alone,  he 
could  summon  at  will  phantasms  of  loveliness  and 
terror,  and  at  times  doubtless  they  came  unbidden. 
Nor  did  the  aspects  of  nature  viewed  by  his  bodily 
eyes  banish  the  mental  vision.  It  is  true  that  he 
went  so  far  as  to  declare  that  "he  did  not  behold 
the  outward  creation, "and  that  it  was  for  him "  hin- 
drance and  not  action,"  but  in  his  next  words  he 
admits  that  natural  objects  served  as  a  framework 
to  be  clothed  upon  in  his  mind: 

"  It  will  be  questioned,"  said  he,  "  '  when  the  sun 
rises,  do  you  not  see  a  disc  of  fire,  somewhat  like  a 
guinea  ?'  Oh  no,  no !  I  see  an  innumerable  company 
of  the  heavenly  host,  crying,  *  Holy,  holy,  holy,  is 
the  Lord  God  Almighty ! ' " 

Still  more  clearly  is  a  similar  thought  expressed 
in  the  simplicity  of  these  lines: 
"  For  double  the  vision  my  eyes  do  see. 
And  a  double  vision  is  always  with  me : 
With  my  inward  eye,  'tis  an  old  man  grey; 
With  my  outward,  a  thistle  across  my  way." 
Though  a  lunatic  might  confuse  man  and  thistle, 
for  him  there  would  be  no  distinction  between  the 
inward  and  outward  eye.  But  for  Blake  the  vision  is 

28 


INTRODUCTION 
"twofold  always.  May  God  us  keep 
From  single  vision,  and  Newton's  sleep ! " 
"Newton's  sleep"  meaning  the  mental  attitude 
of  the  man  of  science,  absorbed  in  contemplation 
of  the  physical  universe -an  attitude  which  Blake 
despised,  never  dreaming  that  the  imagination  of 
a  Newton  might  be  as  daring  as  his  own.  It  should 
however  be  observed  that  Blake  continually  uses 
proper  names -Voltaire,  Bacon.  Locke,  Rousseau 
-merely  as  representative  of  opinions. 

"Man  must  and  will  have  Some  Religion,"  says 
Blake.What,  then,  was  his  own?  To  the  unqualified 
question,"  Was  Blake  a  Christian  ?"  the  answer  can 
only  be, "  Yes  -  and.  No." 

In  the  early  Spring-time  of  the  Church,  when  it 
pullulated  with  heresies  and  super-heresies,  a  sect 
might  perhaps  have  been  found  to  claim  him  as  a 
member.  MrW.  M.  Rossetti  suggests  the  Marcion- 
ites.  But  then -fatal  objection -they  were  ascetics. 
Certain  general  doctrines  of  the  Gnostics  Blake 
would  probably  have  accepted :  for  instance,  that 
the  Jewish  Jehovah  was  distinct  from  the  Supreme 
Being;  that  the  Creation  was  a  catastrophe;  that 
the  visible  Christ  on  earth  was  a  mere  eidolon  of 
the  spiritual  Christ.  But  it  is  clear  that  we  must  deal 
warily  with  the  opinions  of  a  man  who  said,  "Jesus 
Christ  is  the  only  God  -  and  so  am  I,  and  so  areyou, " 

19 


INTRODUCTION 
and  who  also  said,"  I  know  of  no  other  Christianity 
and  no  other  Gospel  than  the  liberty  of  both  body 
and  mind  to  exercise  the  divine  arts  of  imagination." 
Of  one  thing  at  least  we  are  sure :  the  religion  of 
creeds  G*  formularies  Blake  despised  and  detested; 
the  fungus  in  which  the  angel  was  suspended  over 
the  abyss  is  in  his  eyes  a  figure  of  mouldering 
dogma,  and  the  "seven  houses  of  brick"  in  the  same 
Memorable  Fancy  are  churches  and  sects,  of  far 
different  construction  from  that  building  of  which 
"  The  stones  are  pity,  and  the  bricks  well- 
wrought  affections, 
Enamell'd  with  love  and  kindness," 
of  which  he  tells  us  in  "Jerusalem." 

Perhaps,  after  all,  we  may  best  describe  Blake's 
religion  as  an  unconscious  modification  of  the 
Pantheism  of  the "  Upanishads,"  without  the  Hindu 
corollary  of  abstinence  from  action.  Life,  as  we 
know  it,  is  but  an  interval  between  two  infinite 
existences.  Man  is  a  "contraction"  of  the  Divine 
Universal  Mind  :  as  he  was  once  God,  so  God  he 
will  again  become.  But  in  Life  he  is  cut  off  from 
communion  with  the  Divine.  Time  and  Space  cast 
their  dark  shadows  around  - 

"our  mortal  veil 
And  shattered  phantom  of  the  infinite  One." 
Moreover  there  are  jailers  in  our  prison-house; 
30 


INTRODUCTION 
mysterious  gods  of  this  world,  "Jehovah"  6  "  Satan," 
limited  in  their  powers  of  good  and  evil,  struggling 
for  and  plotting  against  man.  Nevertheless  "the 
Lord  our  God  is  one  God," since  Man's  oppressors 
are  but  the  creations  of  his  own  mind  -  or,  rather, 
merely  moods  and  aspects  of  it ;  for,  we  are  told, "All 
deities  reside  in  the  human  breast." 

Man's  Soul,  though  thus  exiled  from  the  Infinite, 
"clad  in  the  muddy  vesture  of  decay, "and  immured 
in  the  narrow  cell  of  the  five  senses,  still  partakes 
of  the  divine  in  so  far  as  it  seeks  to  escape  from  its 
prison, or  at  least  to  look  out  through  its  one  narrow 
window -the  Imagination. 

But  the  Imagination  in  this  sense  is  by  no  means 
to  be  confused  with  that  lower  manifestation  of  the 
same  faculty  which  is  merely  vivid  memory,  nor 
even  with  that  higher  form  which  enables  us,  in 
Ruskin's  words,"to  vision  forth  the  ministry  of  an- 
gels beside  us,  and  see  the  chariots  of  fire  on  the 
mountains  that  gird  us  round . "  By  Imagination  Blake 
meant  what  he  often  calls  the  Poetic  Genius -the 
transcendental  god-like  power  that  is  truly  crea- 
tive, fir  not  merely  plastic,  drawing  its  raw  material, 
not  from  the  universe  of  experience,  but  from  the 
external  yet  all-pervading  supersensuous  Infinite. 

"As  none  by  travelling  over  known  lands,"  says 
Blake,  "can  find  out  the  unknown,  so,  from  already 

31 


INTRODUCTION 
acquired  knowledge  Man  could  not  acquire  more; 
therefore  an  universal  Poetic  Genius  exists."  It  was 
not  for  the  rapt  seer  to  clothe  himself  with  the 
humility  of  Akbar,  and  confess - 

"  I  can  but  lift  the  torch 
Of  Reason  in  the  dusky  cave  of  life;" 
it  was  his  practical  religion,  rather,  never  to  flag  in 
the  struggle  to  bathe  himself  in  the  celestial  light 
which  he  knew  to  enfold  all  without,  and  to  tell  the 
vision  to  his  fellows  in  the  gloom. 


RINTR  AH  roars,  and  shakes  his  fires  in  the 
burdened  air!"  such  is  the  enigmatic  sen- 
tence flung  in  the  face  of  the  reader  of  the 
"  Marriage  of  Heaven  and  Hell "  who  begins  at  the 
beginning;  though  it  should  be  remembered  that 
the"  Argument,"  like  most  prefaces,  was  probably 
written  after  the  rest  of  the  book.  Who,  or  what, 
is  Rintrah?  To  answer  this  question,  however  im- 
perfectly, we  must  go  far  afield.  We  must  first 
realize  the  astonishing  fact  that  Blake,  alone  of 
men,  undertook  to  construct,  not  an  allegory  or  an 
epic,  but  an  entire  Mythology.  He  dared  to  elabo- 
rate a  system  of  symbolical  myths,  partly  to  clothe 
therewith  the  too  startling  nakedness  of  his  philo- 
sophy, and  partly  to  serve  as  an  instrument  of  re- 
search in  supersensuous  regions. 
32 


INTRODUCTION 

No  bolder  conception  ever  entered  a  poet's 
mind.  All  other  Mythologies  have  been  the  slow 
growth  of  ages,  and  have  been  evolved,  almost 
unconsciously,  from  the  observation  of  natural 
phenomena,  or  the  half- forgotten  traditions  of  na- 
tional origins;  but  Blake  endeavoured  to  bring  to 
maturity  in  his  own  lifetime  a  Mythology  as  elabo- 
rate as  thatof  the  Greeks  or  the  Hindus,  6-,  because 
artificial,  more  consistent.  And  this  Mythology 
formed  no  mere  poetic  cosmogony,  but  sought  to 
unfold  the  progress  of  the  human  soul  -  to  probe  its 
hidden  struggles  and  aspirations. 

Hence  arose  the  marvellous  poems  of  "Jerusa- 
lem," "Vala,""Urizen, "and  the  rest,  in  addition  to 
an  unknown  mass  of  writings  destroyed  after 
Blake's  death.  The  protagonists  in  these  so-called 
"  Prophetic  Books,"  such  as  Urizen,  Luvah,  Thar- 
mas,  and  Urthona,  are,  like  Indra  and  Varuna,  or 
Thor  and  Balder,  symbols  -  though  not,  like  them, 
symbols  of  the  rain-cloud,  the  sky,  the  storm,  or  the 
dawn,  but  of  psychic  moods  and  attributes,  having 
varying  connotations,  and  being  at  once  allusive 
and  elusive. 

When  the  emblems  employed  are  invariable  6* 
definite,  symbolism  need  involve  no  great  mystery. 

Herbert  Spencer's"  First  Principles "  might  con- 
ceivably be  thrown  into  operatic  form,  without 
being  unintelligible  -  if  a  key  were  provided.  The 

d  j,j, 


INTRODUCTION 
change  "from  an  indefinite  incoherent  homoge- 
neity to  a  definite  coherent  heterogeneity"  could, 
indeed,  be  as  clearly  displayed  in  the  ballet  as  are 
the  solar  and  lunar  eclipses  in  "  The  Rehearsal" ! 

But  the  key  to  the  "  Prophetic  Books"  has  pain- 
fully to  be  sought,  for  in  them  moods  and  attributes 
of  the  mind  are  sometimes  so  strongly  personified 
that "  Men  they  seem  to  one  another,"  while  again 
they  may  appear  as  geographical  regions  through 
which  we  mortals  pass.  Symbols  are  even  them- 
selves symbolized.  Need  we  greatly  wonder,  there- 
fore, if  these  poems  were  long  regarded  as  little 
better  than  a  madman's  ravings?  "Listen  to  the 
fool's  reproach ;  it  is  a  kingly  title ! "  wrote  Blake, 
anticipating  his  fate. 

In  exegesis  of  the  "Prophetic  Books"  Swinburne 
was  a  pioneer,  and  his  famous "  Essay"-i868-pointed 
out  many  paths  for  future  investigators.  Twenty- 
five  years  later  Mr  Ellis  and  Mr  Yeats  astonished  j 
the  world  of  letters  by  laying  before  it  the  results 
of  their  exploration  of  the  same  haunted  and  mys- 
terious realm.  Some  may  still  look  upon  the  strange 
tidings  which  they  brought  back,  with  the  suspicion 
which  attaches  to  travellers'  tales.  But  the  route  is 
now  open  to  all,  &  none  have  the  right  of  criticism 
who  have  not  traversed  it. 

This  reference  to  the  "  Prophetic  Books "  is  by  no 
means  a  mere  digression,  for  Blake  was  undoubt- 

34 


INTRODUCTION 
edly  occupied  with  his  Mythology  when  he  wrote 
"The  Marriage  of  Heaven  and  Hell,"  and  there 
are  in  the  latter  not  a  few  cryptic  passages  only  to 
be  read  by  the  light  cast  upon  them  by  the  suc- 
ceeding writings.  If  we  regard  the  "Marriage "  as 
a  strange  and  splendid  portal  through  which  the 
neophyte  must  pass,  ere,  greatly  daring,  he  essays 
the  formidable  chaos  beyond,  we  must  remember 
that  of  the  hieroglyphs  which  adorn  that  portal 
many  can  only  be  interpreted  by  reference  to  the 
dark  region  to  which  it  leads.  It  is  for  this  reason 
that  an  entirely  independent  "explanation"  of 
"  The  Marriage  of  Heaven  6*  Hell "  is  impossible. 

It  has  been  hinted  above  that  Blake's  symbolism 
was  partly  an  instrument  of  research.  JamesThom- 
son,  the  author  of  "The  City  of  Dreadful  Night," 
seems  to  have  first  indicated  the  analogy  between 
the  personages  of  the  Great  Myth  and  the  X,  Y,  Z, 
of  the  algebraist.  Their  analogy  is,  perhaps,  still 
closer  to  the "  imaginaries "  of  analytical  geometry. 
In  this  science  symbols  lead  to  "unintelligible"  re- 
sults that  are  of  the  highest  practical  importance. 
To  the  purblind  eye  of  Common  Sense  concentric 
circles  cannot  possibly  intersect  one  another,  yet 
the  geometer  assures  us,  without  a  blush,  that  his 
symbols  aver  that  they  all  pass  through  the  same 
two  circular  points  at  infinity ;  and  from  this  gib- 
berish he  deduces  propositions  which  even  Com- 

3^ 


INTRODUCTION 
mon  Sense  admits  to  be  both  true  and  valuable.  A 
warning,  this,  against  scoffing  at  the  "scales  and 
rundles"  by  which  alone  the  topmost  pinnacles  of 
speculation  can  be  surmounted. 

Meanwhile,  "Rintrah  roars:"  He  is  one  of  the 
four  sons  of  Los ; 

"  Rintrah  fierce,  and  Palamabron  mild  and  piteous, 
Theotormon  filled  with  care,  Bromion  loving 

science  "-- 
thus  they  are  enumerated  in  the  First  Part  of "  Mil- 
ton." Rintrah's  emblem  is  a  lion,  as  we  learn  in 
"Europe:" 
"O  lion  Rintrah,  raise  thy  fury  from  thy  forests 

black!" 
He  controls  a  flaming  forge,  beating  out  the 
Plow  and  Harrow,  to  pass  over  the  nations.  He 
symbolizes  intellectual  enthusiasm,  the  restless 
spirit  of  energy,  wrathful  rebellion  alike  against 
conventional  ethics  and  against  the  fleshy  fetters 
of  the  soul.  Darkly  the  "Argument"  hints  of  a  de- 
parted golden  age  of  innocence,  but  not  of  ignor- 
ance, when  righteousness  was  not  bondage:  but 
with  the  Law  enters  Hypocrisy,  and  the  "Just 
Man  "  isdriven  into  the  desert  of  artificial  morality, 
where  baser  passions  threaten  him  like  beasts  of 
prey.  Hungry  clouds,  not  big  with  blessings,  hang 
low  upon  his  path. 

We  have  already  touched  upon  the  remarkable 

36 


INTRODUCTION 
reference  to  Swedenborg*s  vision  of  judgment 
with  which  the  book  opens,  and  this  should  be  read 
again  in  connection  with  the  "Commentary"  fol- 
lowing the  fourth  Memorable  Fancy. 

In  "The  Voice  of  the  Devil,"  &  the  paragraphs 
immediately  succeeding,  we  are  presented  with 
the  true  "argument"  of  the  book.  "Without  Con- 
traries is  no  progression";  Humanity  itself  could 
not  exist  save  through  the  clash  of  antagonisms. 
Good,  which  is  Heaven,  "is  the  passive  that  obeys 
Reason";  Evil,  which  is  Hell,  "is  the  active  spring- 
ing from  Energy."  We  must  rid  our  minds,  there- 
fore, of  the  conventional  meanings  attached  to  the 
terms  used,  and  of  the  associated  prejudices.  The 
marriage  of  Heaven  and  Hell  is  the  reconciliation, 
or,  at  all  events,  the  union,  of  Energy  and  Reason. 


WE  have  already  referred  to  two  daring 
passages  in  which  Blake  seems  to  rebel 
against  the  "mind-formed  manacles"  of 
conventional  morality.To  this  subject  we  must  re- 
cur, for  to  slur  over  or  ignore  his  views  on  that  de- 
partment of  Ethics  which  to  some  minds  seems 
alone  to  constitute  "morality,"  is  not  merely  to 
evade  a  difficulty,  but  to  omit  reference  to  a  most 
1  interesting  feature  of  the  poet's  philosophy. 
I  J>1 


INTRODUCTION 

Upon  the  fly-leaf  of  his  copy  of  Lavater*s 
"Aphorisms,"  Blake  jotted  down  this  remarkable 
note:-"  The  hindering  of  Act  in  another.. .  isVice, 
but  all  Act  is  Virtue.  To  hinder  another  is  not  an 
act.  It  is  the  contrary.  It  is  a  restraint  in  action,  both 
in  ourselves  &  in  the  person  hindered;  for  he  who 
hinders  another  omits  his  own  duty  at  the  same 
time.  Murder  is  hinderinganother;  theft  is  hinder- 
ing another;  backbiting,  undermining,  circum- 
venting, or  whatever  is  negative  is  vice.  But  the 
origin  of  this  mistake  in  Lavater  and  his  contem- 
poraries is -they  suppose  that  Woman's  Love  is 
Sin.  In  consequence,  all  the  loves  &  graces,  with 
them,  are  sins." 

To  regard  Blake -the  faithful  husband  of  one 
wife -as  a  typical  libertine,  is  merely  ridiculous. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  equally  absurd  to  pretend 
that  his  views  on  the  relations  of  the  sexes  were  not 
of  the  most  heterodox  and  subversive  kind,  and  it 
must  be  admitted  that  what  Sir  Thomas  Browne, 
from  another  point  of  view,  calls  the  "vulgar  and 
trivial  way  of  marriage,"  found  no  great  favour  in 
his  eyes.  "Many  short  follies -that  is  what  ye  call 
love.  And  marriage  maketh  an  end  of  many  short 
follies -being  one  long  stupidity":  thus  spake  Zara- 
thustra. 

It  is  said  that  Blake  once  affected  his  wife  to  tears 
by  proposing  to  introduce  a  concubine  into  their 

38 


INTRODUCTION 
narrow  household.  The  improbability  of  the  story 
lies  in  the  modesty  of  the  alleged  suggestion.  The 
poet's  fervid  fancy  would,  questionless,  have  led 
him  to  emulate  that  wisest  of  men,  whose  songs, 
although  they  were  "a  thousand  &  five,  "yet  barely 
out-numbered  the  inmates  of  his  seraglio. 

Blake,  it  would  appear,  unburdened  his  soul 
when  he  wrote: 

" To  a  lovely  myrtle  bound. 

Blossoms  showering  all  around, 

Oh  how  weak  and  weary  I 

Underneath  my  myrtle  lie ! 

Why  should  I  be  bound  to  thee, 

O  my  lovely  myrtle  tree  ? 

Love,  free  love,  cannot  be  bound 

To  any  tree  that  grows  on  ground  "- 
yet  it  seems  clear  that  he  was  not  pining  for  a  grove 
of  lovely  myrtles,  but  was  simply  exasperated  with 
the  chain  which  bound  him  to  his  tree.  He  scorned 
and  hated,  in  fact,  what  he  considered  the  artificial 
bondage  of  conventional  morality,  as  an  ever-pre- 
sent symbol  of  the  gagged  and  fettered  state  of 
Humanity  "in  this  age." 

Boundless  liberty  of  thought,  however,  never 
led  in  Blake's  case  to  licence  of  language.  No  writer 
ever  treated  of  emancipated  passion  with  greater 
dignity  and  restraint.  Even  when  he  sings  in "  The 
Vision  of  the  Daughters  of  Albion"  of  "Happy, 

39 


INTRODUCTION 
happy  Love !  free  as  the  mountain  wind ! "  his  joyous 
exaltation  scarcely  tempts  him  to  the  use  of  phrase- 
ology comparable  to  what  Milton  quaintly  terms 
"  the  jolliest  expressions  "  of  the  "  over-frolic  "  Can- 
ticles. 

Blake's  liberal  views  may  also  be  regarded  in  a 
somewhat  different  light.  His  life-work  in  literature 
and  art  reflects  a  passionate  protest  against  the  dis- 
paragement of  the  body.  In  his  belief,  to  use  Mr 
Binyon's  words,  "the  Puritanism  that  would  deny 
the  body  is  a  kind  of  infidelity"- for  is  not  the  body 
but  an  aspect  of  the  soul  ?  He  realized  to  the  full 
the  utter  incompatibility  of  Puritanism  and  Art.  It 
is  true  that  Puritans  claim  as  one  of  themselves  him 
who  has  painted  in  immortal  phrase  the  radiant 
beauty  of 

"Eve 
Undecked  save  with  herself,  more  lovely  fair 
Than  wood-nymph,  or  the  fairest  goddess  feigned 
Of  three  that  in  mount  Ida  naked  strove"; 

but  Blake  himself  incidentally  hints  a  solution  of 
the  paradox:  Milton  "was  a  true  Poet,  and  of  the 
Devil's  party  without  knowing  it" ! 

That  Blake  looked  too  persistently  at  but  one 
side  of  the  shield  may  freely  be  granted;  but  no 
enthusiastic  teacher  is  for  ever  dinning  the  views 
of  his  opponents  into  the  ears  of  his  audience.  It  is 

40 


INTRODUCTION 
true  that  dangers  lurk  in  one-sided  arguments - 
Luther  pushed  Justification  by  Faith  perilously 
near  Damnation  by  Works  -yet  it  is  but  just  to  bear 
in  mind  that  the  poet  was  quite  conscious  that  the 
shield  had  another  side,  that  free  love  inevitably 
becomes  moral  anarchy  for  weak  &  ignoble  souls, 
&  thatdivine  Philosophy  may  become "  Procuress  to 
the  Lordsof  Hell. "After  all, it  was  Blake  whowrote: 
"The  harlot's  cry  from  street 
Shall  weave  old  England's  winding-sheet." 
Could  a  Hogarth  moralize  more  grimly?  Nor  let 
us  forget  that  Love  had  for  Blake  more  than  one 
meaning: 

"Seek  Love  in  the  pity  of  others'  woe, 

In  the  gentle  relief  of  another's  care. 
In  the  darkness  of  night  and  the  winter's  snow, 
With  the  naked  &  outcast,  seek  Love  there." 

"The  Song  of  Liberty,"  with  which  the  volume 
ends,  is  now  held  to  be  a  distinct  work.  Regarded 
apart  from  its  place  in  the  symbolic  scheme  of  the 
Mythology,  it  is  obviously  a  paean  called  forth  by 
the  great  events  then  unfolding  themselves  on  the 
Continent. 

Blake  saw  "the  son  of  fire  in  his  eastern  cloud . . . 
loosing  the  eternal  horses  from  the  dens  of  night, 
crying,  *  Empire  is  no  more ! ' "  Needless  to  say  that 
his  "faith  was  pledged  to  new-born  Liberty"  &  to 

41 


INTRODUCTION 
the  hope  that  "now  the  Lion  and  the  Wolf  shall 
cease  "-for  the  Reign  of  Terror  was  not  yet. 

Exulting,  he  "stamps  the  stony  law  to  dust,"  and 
then,  as  the  final  chorus  closes,  there  flames  forth 
that  triumphant  confession  of  faith  -to  be  echoed 
and  re-echoed  in  the  Prophetic  Books- 

"  For  everything  that  lives  is  holy ! " 

li  ND  now  we  must  no  longer  bar  the  way. 
ZA  Let  it  be  clearly  understood  that  this  brief 
j[  V  Introduction  is  intended  neither  as  a  com- 
mentary nor  as  an  epitome.  Adequately  to  com- 
ment on  this  wonderful  book  would  need  many 
times  the  space  at  our  disposal,  while  to  epitomize 
it  would  be  to  distil  a  quintessence.  We  have  but 
endeavoured  to  lay  before  the  reader  some  need- 
ful preliminary  information,  and  to  offer  a  few  re- 
marks which  may  possibly  prove  suggestive.  In 
fact,  we  have  tried  to 

"give  you  the  end  of  a  golden  string; 
Only  wind  it  into  a  ball. 
It  will  lead  you  in  at  Heaven's  gate. 
Built  in  Jerusalem's  wall !" 
And  surely,  of  those  who  sympathetically  study 
"The  Marriage  of  Heaven  &  Hell,"  few  will  rest 
content  therewith;  rather  will  they  be  tempted  to 
plunge  into  the  dreamy  labyrinth  of  the  vast  My- 
thology which  succeeds  it.  They  will  thread  the 
42 


INTRODUCTION 
moony  shades  of  Beulah,  and  the  dismal  forests  of 
Entuthon  Benython;  they  will  dare  beyond  the 
land  of  death  eternal  to  the  domes  of  Golgonooza. 
where  ten  thousand  demons  labour  at  the  anvils  of 
Los;  and  they  will  assuredly  grant  that,  unfathom- 
able though  much  of  his  poetry  may  seem,  the  ob- 
scurity of  Blake  is  not  the  gloom  of  reek  &  fog.  but 
the  darkness  of  the  thunder-cloud,  whence  issue 
flashes  of  elemental  fire,  and  pealing  voices  which 
echo  for  ever  in  the  memory  of  those  who  have 
ears  to  hear. 

F.G.S. 


45 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF  HEAVEN  AND  HELL 


THE  ARGUMENT 

RINTRAH  roars  and  shakes  his  fires  in  the 
burden'd  air; 
Hungry  clouds  swag  on  the  deep. 
Once  meek,  and  in  a  perilous  path, 
The  just  man  kept  his  course  along 
The  vale  of  death. 

Roses  are  planted  where  thorns  grow. 
And  on  the  barren  heath 
Sing  the  honey  bees. 

TTien  the  perilous  path  was  planted : 
And  a  river,  and  a  spring 
On  every  cliff  and  tomb; 
And  on  the  bleached  bones 
Red  clay  brought  forth. 

Till  the  villain  left  the  paths  of  ease. 
To  walk  in  perilous  paths,  and  drive 
The  just  man  into  barren  climes. 

Now  the  sneaking  serpent  walks 
In  mild  humility. 

And  the  just  man  rages  in  the  wilds 
Where  lions  roam. 

Rintrah  roars  &  shakes  his  fires  in  the  burden'd  air; 
Hungry  clouds  swag  on  the  deep. 

47 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF 


jC  S  a  new  heaven  is  begun,  and  it  is  now  thirty- 
IJL    three  years  since  its  advent:  the  Eternal 

jI     j^ Hell  revives. 
And  lo  !  Swedenborg  is  the  Angel  sitting  at  the 

tomb:  his  writings  are  the  linen  clothes  folded  up. 
Now  is  the  dominion  of  Edom,  6"  the  return 

of  Adam  into  Paradise;  see  Isaiah  xxxiv  &  xxxv 

Chap: 

Without  Contraries  is  no  progression.  Attrac- 
tion and  Repulsion,  Reason  and  Energy,  Love  and 
Hate,  are  necessary  to  Human  existence. 

From  these  contraries  spring  what  the  religious 
call  Good  &  Evil. 

Good  is  the  passive  that  obeys  Reason;  Evil  is  the 
active  springing  from  Energy. 

Good  is  Heaven.  Evil  is  Hell. 


48 


HEAVEN  AND  HELL 

THE  VOICE  OF  THE  DEVIL 
ti  LL  Bibles,  or  sacred  codes,  have  been  the 
/\    causes  of  the  following  Errors : 

^    \^i.  That  Man  has  two  real  existing  principles, 

Viz. :  a  Body  &  a  Soul. 

2.  That  Energy,  call'd  Evil,  is  alone  from  the 
Body,  &  that  Reason,  call'd  Good,  isalone  from  the 
Soul. 

3.  That  God  will  torment  Man  in  Eternity  for 
following  his  Energies. 

But  the  following  Contraries  to  these  are  True : 

1.  Man  hasnoBodydistinct  from  his  Soul,  for  that 
call'd  Body  is  a  portion  of  Soul  discern'd  by  the  five 
Senses,  the  chief  inlets  of  Soul  in  this  age. 

2.  Energy  is  the  only  life,  and  is  from  the  Body, 
and  Reason  is  the  bound  or  outward  circumference 
of  Energy. 

3.  Energy  is  Eternal  Delight. 

Those  who  restrain  desire,  do  so  because  theirs  is 
weak  enough  to  be  restrained;  and  the  restrainer 
or  reason  usurps  its  place  &  governs  the  unwilling. 

And  being  restrain'd,  it  by  degrees  becomes  pas- 
sive till  it  is  only  the  shadow  of  desire. 

The  history  of  this  is  written  in  Paradise  Lost,  & 
the  Governor  or  Reason  is  call'd  Messiah.  And  the 
original  Archangel,  or  possessor  of  the  command 

e  49 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF 
of  the  heavenly  host,  is  call'd  the  Devil  or  Satan, 
and  his  children  are  call'd  Sin  &  Death. 

But  in  the  Book  of  Job  Milton's  Messiah  is  call'd 
Satan.  For  this  history  has  been  adopted  by  both 
parties. 

It  indeed  appear'd  to  Reason  as  if  Desire  was 
castout,  but  the  Devil's  account  is,  that  the  Messiah 
fell,  6"  formed  a  heaven  of  what  he  stole  from  the 
Abyss. 

This  is  shown  in  the  Gospel,  where  he  prays  to 
the  Father  to  send  the  comforter,  or  Desire,  that 
Reason  may  have  Ideas  to  build  on,  the  Jehovah 
of  the  Bible  being  no  other  than  he  who  dwells  in 
flaming  fire. 

Know  that  after  Christ's  death,  he  became 
Jehovah. 

But  in  Milton;  the  Father  is  Destiny,  the  Son, 
a  Ratio  of  the  five  senses,  &  the  Holy-ghost, 
Vacuum ! 

NOTE.  -  The  reason  Milton  wrote  in  fetters 
when  he  wrote  of  Angels  6"  God,  and  at  liberty 
when  of  Devils  6"  Hell,  is  because  he  was  a  true 
Poet  and  of  the  Devil's  party  without  knowing  it. 


5o 


HEAVEN  AND  HELL 


A  MEMORABLE  FANCY 
jtf  S  I  was  walking  among  the  fires  of  hell,  de- 
/\  lighted  with  the  enjoyments  of  Genius; 
j|  \  which  to  Angels  look  like  torment  and  in- 
sanity, I  collected  some  of  their  Proverbs;  thinking 
that  as  the  sayings  used  in  a  nation  mark  its  cha- 
racter, so  the  Proverbs  of  Hell  shew  the  nature  of 
Infernal  wisdom  better  than  any  description  of 
buildings  or  garments. 

When  I  came  home,  on  the  abyss  of  the  five 
senses,  where  a  flat  sided  steep  frowns  over  the 
present  world,  I  saw  a  mighty  Devil  folded  in  black 
clouds,  hovering  on  the  sides  of  the  rock :  with  cor- 
roding fires  he  wrote  the  following  sentence,  now 
percieved  by  the  minds  of  men,  6*  read  by  them  on 
earth : 
"  How  do  you  know  but  ev'ry  Bird  that  cuts  the  airy 

way, 
Is  an  immense  world  of  delight,  clos'd  by  your 
senses  five?" 


51 


I 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF 


PROVERBS  OF  HELL 
N  seed  time  learn,  in  harvest  teach,  in  winter 
enjoy. 


Drive  your  cart  and  your  plow  over  the  bones 
of  the  dead. 

The  road  of  excess  leads  to  the  palace  of  wisdom. 

Prudence  is  a  rich  ugly  old  maid  courted  by  In- 
capacity. 

He  who  desires  but  acts  not,  breeds  pestilence. 

The  cut  worm  forgives  the  plow. 

Dip  him  in  the  river  who  loves  water. 

A  fool  sees  not  the  same  tree  that  a  wise  man 
sees. 

He  whose  face  gives  no  light,  shall  never  be- 
come a  star. 

Eternity  is  in  love  with  the  productions  of  time. 

The  busy  bee  has  no  time  for  sorrow. 
52 


li 


HEAVEN  AND  HELL 
The  hours  of  folly  are  measured  by  the  clock; 
but  of  wisdom,  no  clock  can  measure. 

All  wholsom  food  is  caught  without  a  net  or  a 
trap. 

Bring  out  number,  weight  6*  measure  in  a  year 
of  dearth. 

No  bird  soars  too  high,  if  he  soars  with  his  own 
wings. 

A  dead  body  revenges  not  injuries. 

The  most  sublime  act  is  to  set  another  before 
you. 

If  the  fool  would  persist  in  his  folly  he  would  be- 
come wise. 

Folly  is  the  cloke  of  knavery. 

Shame  is  Pride's  cloke. 

Prisons  are  built  with  stones  of  Law,  Brothek 
with  bricks  of  Religion. 

The  pride  of  the  peacock  is  the  glory  of  God; 
The  lust  of  the  goat  is  the  bounty  of  God ; 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF 
The  wrath  of  the  lion  is  the  wisdom  of  God; 
The  nakedness  of  woman  is  the  work  of  God. 

Excess  of  sorrow  laughs;  Excess  of  joy  weeps. 

The  roaring  of  lions,  the  howling  of  wolves,  the 
raging  of  the  stormy  sea,  6*  the  destructive  sword, 
are  portions  of  eternity  too  great  for  the  eye  of  man. 

The  fox  condemns  the  trap,  not  himself. 

Joys  impregnate;  Sorrows  bring  forth. 

Let  man  wear  the  fell  of  the  lion;  woman,  the 
fleece  of  the  sheep. 

The  bird,  a  nest;  the  spider,  a  web;  man,  friend- 
ship. 

The  selfish  smiling  fool,  &  the  sullen  frowning 
fool,  shall  be  both  thought  wise,  that  they  may  be 
a  rod. 

What  is  now  proved  was  once,  only  imagin'd. 

The  rat,  the  mouse,  the  fox,  the  rabbet,  watch 
the  roots;  the  lion,  the  tyger,  the  horse,  the  ele- 
phant, watch  the  fruits. 

^4 


I 


HEAVEN  AND  HELL 
The  cistern  contains;  the  fountain  overflows. 

One  thought  fills  immensity. 

Always  be  ready  to  speak  your  mind,  and  a  base 
man  will  avoid  you. 

Every  thing  possible  to  be  believ'd  is  an  image 
of  truth. 

The  eagle  never  lost  so  much  time,  as  when  he 
submitted  to  learn  of  the  crow. 

The  fox  provides  for  himself,  but  God  provides 
for  the  lion. 

Think  in  the  morning;  Act  in  the  noon;  Eat  in 
the  evening;  Sleep  in  the  night. 

He  who  has  suffer 'd  you  to  impose  on  him  knows 
you. 

As  the  plow  follows  words,  so  God  rewards 
prayers. 

The  tygers  of  wrath  are  wiser  than  the  horses  of 
instruction. 


55 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF 
Expect  poison  from  the  standing  water. 

You  never  know  what  is  enough,  unless  jou 
know  what  is  more  than  enough. 

Listen  to  the  fools'  reproach !  It  is  a  kingly  title ! 

The  eyes  of  fire,  the  nostrils  of  air,  the  mouth  of 
water,  the  beard  of  earth. 

The  weak  in  courage  is  strong  in  cunning. 

The  apple  tree  never  asks  the  beech  how  he 
shall  grow,  nor  the  lion,  the  horse,  how  he  shall 
take  his  prey. 

The  thankful  reciever  bears  a  plentiful  harvest. 

If  others  had  not  been  foolish,  we  should  be  so. 

The  soul  of  sweet  delight  can  never  be  defil'd. , 

When  thou  seest  an  Eagle,  thou  seest  a  portion 
of  Genius;  lift  up  thy  head ! 

As  the  catterpiller  chooses  the  fairest  leaves  to 
lay  her  eggs  on.  so  the  priest  lays  his  curse  on  the 
fairest  joys. 

^6 


HEAVEN  AND  HELL 
To  create  a  little  flower  is  the  labour  of  ages. 

Damn,  braces:  Bless,  relaxes. 

The  best  wine  is  the  oldest,  the  best  water  the 
newest. 

Prayers  plow  not !  Praises  reap  not ! 
joys  laugh  not !  Sorrows  weep  not ! 

Thehead  Sublime,  the  heartPathos.thegenitals 
Beauty,  the  hands  &  feet  Proportion. 

As  the  air  to  a  bird,  or  the  sea  to  a  fish,  so  is  con- 
tempt to  the  contemptible. 

The  crow  wish'd  every  thing  was  black,  the  owl, 
that  every  thing  was  white. 

Exuberance  is  Beauty. 

If  the  lion  was  advised  by  the  fox,  he  would  be 
cunning. 

Improvent  makes  strait  roads,  but  the  crooked 
roads  without  Improvement,  are  roads  of  Genius. 


37 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF 
Sooner  murder  an  infant  in  its  cradle  than  nurse 
unacted  desires. 

Where  man  is  not,  nature  is  barren. 

Truth  can  never  be  told  so  as  to  be  understood, 
and  not  be  believ'd. 

Enough !  or  Too  much. 


58 


\ 


HEAVEN  AND  HELL 


T 


HE  ancient  Poets  animated  all  sensible  objects 
with  Gods  or  Geniuses,  calling  them  by  the 
names  and  adorning  them  with  the  properties 
of  woods,  rivers,  mountains,  lakes,  cities,  nations, 
and  whatever  their  enlarged  &  numerous  senses 
could  percieve. 

And  particularly  they  studied  the  genius  of  each 
city  and  country,  placing  it  under  its  mental  deity. 

Till  a  system  was  formed,  which  some  took  ad- 
vantage of,  &  enslaved  the  vulgar  by  attempting  to 
realize  or  abstract  the  mental  deities  from  their 
objects;  thus  began  Priesthood. 

Choosing  forms  of  worship  from  poetic  tales. 

And  at  length  they  pronounced  that  the  Gods 
had  order'd  such  things. 

Thus  men  forgot  that  All  deities  reside  in  the 
human  breast. 


59 


T 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF 


A  MEMORABLE  FANCY 
HE  Prophets  Isaiah  and  Ezekiel  dined  with 
me,  and  I  asked  them  how  they  dared  so  round- 
ly to  assert,  that  God  spake  to  them;  and  whe- 
ther they  did  not  think  at  the  time,  that  they  would 
be  misunderstood,  &  so  be  the  cause  of  imposition. 
Isaiah  answered :  I  saw  no  God,  nor  heard  any,  in 
a  finite  organical  perception;  but  my  senses  dis- 
cover'd  the  infinite  in  every  thing,  and  as  I  was  then 
perswaded,  &  remain  confirm'd,  that  the  voice  of 
honest  indignation  is  the  voice  of  God,  I  cared  not 
for  consequences  but  wrote. 

Then  I  asked :  does  a  firm  perswasion  that  a  thing 
is  so,  make  it  so? 

He  replied:  All  poets  believe  that  it  does,  &  in 
ages  of  imagination  this  firm  perswasion  removed 
mountains;  but  many  are  not  capable  of  a  firm  per- 
swasion of  any  thing. 

Then  Ezekiel  said: The  philosophy  of  the  east 
taught  the  first  principles  of  human  perception; 
some  nations  held  one  principle  for  the  origin  & 
some  another;  we  of  Israel  taught  that  the  Poetic 
Genius  (as  you  now  call  it)  was  the  first  principle, 
and  all  the  others  merely  derivative,  which  was  the 
cause  of  our  despising  the  Priests  6-  Philosophers 
of  other  countries,  and  prophecying  that  all  Gods 

60 


HEAVEN  AND  HELL 
would  at  last  be  proved  to  originate  in  ours,  &  to  be 
the  tributaries  of  the  Poetic  Genius;  it  was  this, 
that  our  great  poet  King  David  desired  so  fervently 
&  invokes  so  patheticly,  saying,  by  this  he  con- 
quers enemies  &  governs  kingdoms;  and  we  so 
loved  our  God,  that  we  cursed  in  his  name  all  the 
deities  of  surrounding  nations,  and  asserted  that 
they  had  rebelled:  from  these  opinions  the  vulgar 
came  to  think  that  all  nations  would  at  last  be  sub- 
ject to  the  jews. 

This,  said  he,  like  all  firm  perswasions,  is  come 
to  pass,  for  all  nations  believe  the  jews'  code  and 
worship  the  jews*  God,  and  what  greater  subjection 
can  be? 

I  heard  this  with  some  wonder,  &  must  confess 
my  own  conviction. 

After  dinner  I  ask'd  Isaiah  to  favour  the  world 
with  his  lost  works;  he  said  none  of  equal  value  was 
lost.  Ezekiel  said  the  same  of  his. 

I  also  asked  Isaiah  what  made  him  go  naked  and 
barefoot  three  years?  he  answer'd;  the  same  that 
made  our  friend  Diogenes  the  Grecian. 

I  then  asked  Ezekiel  why  he  eat  dung,  &  lay  so 
long  on  his  right  &  left  side?  he  answer'd;  the  de- 
sire of  raising  other  men  into  a  perception  of  the 
infinite;  this  the  North  American  tribes  practise; 
6"  is  he  honest  who  resists  his  genius  or  conscience, 
only  for  the  sake  of  present  ease  or  gratification  ? 

6i 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF 


T 


HE  ancient  tradition  that  the  world  will  be 
consumed  in  fire  at  the  end  of  six  thousand 
years  is  true,  as  I  have  heard  from  Hell. 

For  the  cherub  with  his  flaming  sword  is  hereby 
commanded  to  leave  his  guard  at  tree  of  life,  and 
when  he  does,  the  whole  creation  will  be  con- 
sumed, and  appear  infinite,  and  holy,  whereas  it 
now  appears  finite  6"  corrupt. 

This  will  come  to  pass  by  an  improvement  of 
sensual  enjoyment. 

But  first  the  notion  that  man  has  a  body  distinct 
from  his  soul,  is  to  be  expunged;  this  I  shall  do,  by 
printing  in  the  infernal  method,  by  corrosives, 
which  in  Hell  are  salutary  and  medicinal,  melting 
apparent  surfaces  away,  and  displayingthe  infinite 
which  was  hid. 

If  the  doors  of  perception  were  cleansed,  every 
thing  would  appear  to  man  as  it  is,  infinite. 

For  man  has  closed  himself  up,  till  he  sees  all 
things  thro'  narrow  chinks  of  his  cavern. 


61 


HEAVEN  AND  HELL 


A  MEMORABLE  FANCY 

J  WAS  in  a  Printing  house  in  Hell  &  saw  the 
method  in  which  knowledge  is  transmitted  from 
generation  to  generation. 

In  the  first  chamber  was  a  Dragon-Man,  clearing 
away  the  rubbish  from  a  cave's  mouth;  within, a 
number  of  Dragons  were  hollowing  the  cave. 

In  the  second  chamber  was  a  Viper  folding 
round  the  rock  6*  the  cave,  and  others  adorning  it 
with  gold,  silver  and  precious  stones. 

In  the  third  chamber  was  an  Eagle,  with  wings 
and  feathers  of  air,  he  caused  the  inside  of  the  cave 
to  be  infinite;  around  were  numbers  of  Eagle  like 
men,  who  built  palaces  in  the  immense  cliffs. 

In  the  fourth  chamber  were  Lionsofflamingfire, 
raging  around  &  melting  the  metals  into  living 
fluids. 

In  the  fifth  chamber  were  Unnam'd  forms,  which 
cast  the  metals  into  the  expanse. 

There  they  were  reciev*d  by  Men  who  occupied 
the  sixth  chamber,  and  took  the  forms  of  books  & 
were  arranged  in  libraries. 


63 


T 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF 
HE  Giants  who  formed  this  world  into  its 
sensual  existence,  and  now  seem  to  live  in  it  in 
chains,  are  in  truth,  the  causes  of  its  life  6"  the 
sources  of  all  activity,  but  the  chains  are  the 
cunning  of  weak  and  tame  minds,  which  have 
power  to  resist  energy;  according  to  the  proverb, 
the  weak  in  courage  is  strong  in  cunning. 

Thus  one  portion  of  being  is  the  Prolific,  the 
other,  the  Devouring :  to  the  devourer  it  seems  as 
if  the  producer  was  in  his  chains,  but  it  is  not  so,  he 
only  takes  portions  of  existence  and  fancies  that 
the  whole. 

But  the  Prolific  would  cease  to  be  Prolific  unless 
the  Devourer  as  a  sea  recieved  the  excess  of  his 
delights. 

Some  will  say.  Is  not  God  alone  the  Prolific? 

I  answer,  God  only  Acts  &  Is,  in  existing  beings 
or  Men. 

These  two  classes  of  men  are  always  upon  earth, 
&  they  should  be  enemies:  whoever  tries  to  recon- 
cile them  seeks  to  destroy  existence. 

Religion  is  an  endeavour  to  reconcile  the  two. 

NOTE.  Jesus  Christ  did  not  wish  to  unite  but  to 
seperate  them,  as  in  the  Parable  of  sheepand  goats! 
&  he  says,  I  came  not  to  send  Peace  but  a  Sword. 

Messiah,  or  Satan,  or  Tempter,  was  formerly 
thought  to  be  one  of  the  Antediluvians,  who  are 
our  Energies. 

64 


HEAVEN  AND  HELL 

A  MEMORABLE  FANCY 

fi  N  Angel  came  to  me  and  said :  O  pitiable 

/\  foolish  young  man !  O  horrible !  O  dreadful 
^  Y.st^^^  '  consider  the  hot  burning  dungeon 
thou  are  preparing  for  thyself  to  all  eternity,  to 
which  thou  art  going  in  such  career. 

I  said :  perhapsyou  will  be  willing  to  shew  me  my 
eternal  lot,  &  we  will  contemplate  together  upon 
it,  and  see  whether  your  lot  or  mine  is  most  desir- 
able. 

So  he  took  me  thro*  a  stable  &  thro'  a  church  & 
down  into  the  church  vault,  at  the  end  of  which 
was  a  mill:  thro'  the  mill  we  went,  and  came  to  a 
cave;  down  the  winding  cavern  we  groped  our 
tedious  way,  till  a  void,  boundless  as  a  nether  sky 
appeared  beneath  us,  &  we  held  by  the  roots  of  trees 
and  hung  over  this  immensity;  but  I  said,  if  you 
please,  we  will  commit  ourselves  to  this  void,  and 
see  whether  providence  is  here  also;  if  you  will  not, 
I  will?  but  he  answer d,  do  not  presume  O young- 
man,  but  as  we  here  remain,  behold  thy  lot,  which 
will  soon  appear  when  the  darkness  passes  away. 

So  I  remained  with  him,  sitting  in  the  twisted  root 
of  an  oak;  he  wassuspended  in  a  fungus  which  hung 
with  the  head  downward  into  the  deep. 

By  degrees  we  beheld  the  infinite  Abyss,  fiery  as 
the  smoke  of  a  burning  city;  beneath  us,  at  an  im- 
mense distance,  was  the  sun,  black  but  shining; 
round  it  were  fiery  tracks  on  which  revolv'd  vast 

f  6^ 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF 
spiders,  crawling  after  their  prey;  which  flew,  or 
rather  swum  in  the  infinite  deep,  in  the  most  terrific 
shapes  of  animals  sprung  from  corruption,  6*  the  air 
was  full  of  them,  &  seem'd  composed  of  them ;  these 
are  Devils,  and  are  called  Powers  of  the  air. 

I  nowasked  my  companion  which  wasmy  eternal 
lot?  he  said,  between  the  black  &  white  spiders. 

But  now,  from  between  the  black  &  white  spi- 
ders a  cloud  and  fire  burst  and  rolled  thro' thedeep, 
black'ning  all  beneath,  so  that  the  nether  deep 
grew  black  as  a  sea  6"  rolled  with  a  terrible  noise: 
beneath  us  was  nothing  now  to  be  seen  but  a  black 
tempest,  till,  looking  east  between  the  clouds  and 
the  waves,  we  saw  a  cataract  of  blood  mixed  with 
fire,  and  not  many  stones'  throw  from  us  appear'd 
and  sunkagain  the  scaly  fold  of  a  monstrous  serpent ; 
at  last,  to  the  east,  distant  about  three  degrees,  ap- 
pear'd a  fiery  crest  above  the  waves ;  slowly  it 
reared,  like  a  ridge  of  golden  rocks,  till  we  discov- 
er'd  two  globes  of  crimson  fire,  from  which  the  sea 
fled  away  in  clouds  of  smoke,  and  now  we  saw  it 
was  the  head  of  Leviathan;  his  forehead  was  di- 
vided into  streaks  of  green  &  purple,  like  those 
on  a  tyger's  forehead :  soon  we  saw  his  mouth  6*  red 
gills  hang  just  above  the  raging  foam,  tinging  the 
blackdeep  with  beams  of  blood,  advancing  toward 
us  with  all  the  fury  of  a  spiritual  existence. 

My  friend  the  Angel  climb'd  up  from  his  station 

66 


HEAVEN  AND  HELL 
into  the  mill;  I  remained  alone,  &  then  this  ap- 
pearance was  no  more,  but  I  found  myself  sitting 
on  a  pleasant  bank  beside  a  river,  by  moonlight, 
hearing  a  harper  who  sung  to  the  harp,  &  his 
theme  was:  The  man  who  never  alters  his  opinion 
is  like  standing  water,  &  breeds  reptiles  of  the  mind. 

But  I  arose,  and  sought  for  the  mill,  &  there  I 
found  my  Angel,  who,  surprised,  asked  me,  how  I 
escaped  ? 

I  answer  d:  All  that  we  saw  was  owing  to  your 
metaphysics;  for  whenyou  ran  away,  I  found  myself 
ona  bank,  bymoonlight,  hearing  a  harper.  But  now 
we  have  seen  my  eternal  lot.  shall  I  shewyouyours  ? 
he  laugh'd  at  my  proposal ;  but  I  by  force  suddenly 
caught  him  in  my  arms,  &  flew  westerly  thro*  the 
night,  till  we  were  elevated  above  the  earth's  sha- 
dow: then  I  flung  myself  with  him  directly  into  the 
body  of  the  sun ;  here  I  clothed  myself  in  white.  & 
taking  in  my  hand  S  wedenborg  s  volumes  sunk  from 
the  glorious  clime,  and  passed  all  the  planets  till  we 
came  to  saturn ;  here  I  staid  to  rest,  &  then  leap'd 
into  the  void,  between  saturn  &  the  fixed  stars. 

Here,  said  I,  is  your  lot,  in  this  space,  if  space  it 
maybe  call'd. 

Soon  we  saw  the  stable  and  the  church,  6*  I  took 
him  to  the  altar  and  open'd  the  Bible,  and  lo !  it  was 
a  deep  pit,  into  which  I  descended,  driving  the 
Angel  before  me;  soon  we  saw  seven  houses  of 

67 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF 

brick,  one  we  enter'd ;  in  it  were  a  number  of  mon- 
keys, baboons,  &  all  of  that  species  chain'd  by  the 
middle,  grinning  and  snatching  at  one  another,  but 
witheld  by  the  shortness  of  their  chains ;  however 
I  saw  that  they  sometimes  grew  numerous,  and  then 
the  weak  were  caught  by  the  strong,  and  with  a 
grinning  aspect  first  coupled  with  &  then  devour'd, 
by  plucking  off  first  one  limb  and  then  another  till 
the  body  was  left  a  helpless  trunk;  this,  after  grin- 
ning 6*  kissing  it  with  seeming  fondness,  they 
devour'd  too:  and  here  &  there  I  saw  one  savourily 
picking  the  flesh  off^of  his  own  tail;  as  the  stench 
terribly  annoy'd  us  both,  we  went  into  the  mill,  & 
I  in  my  hand  brought  the  skeleton  of  a  body,  which 
in  the  mill  was  Aristotle's  Analytics. 

So  the  Angel  said:  thy  phantasy  has  imposed 
upon  me,  fir  thou  oughtest  to  be  ashamed. 

I  answer'd :  we  impose  upon  one  another,  6-  it  is 
but  lost  time  to  converse  with  you  whose  works  are 
only  Analytics. 


68 


HEAVEN  AND  HELL 

1HAVE  always  found  that  Angels  have  the 
vanity  to  speak  of  themselves  as  the  only  wise; 
this  they  do  with  a  confident  insolence  sprout- 
ing from  systematic  reasoning. 

Thus  Swedenborg  boasts  that  what  he  writes  is 
new;  tho'  it  is  only  the  Contents  or  Index  of  al- 
ready published  books. 

A  man  carried  a  monkey  about  for  a  shew,  & 
because  he  was  a  little  wiser  than  the  monkey, 
gr^w  vain,  &  conciev'd  himself  as  much  wiser  than 
seven  men. 

It  is  so  with  Swedenborg:  he  shews  the  folly  of 
churches  &  exposes  hypocrites,  till  he  imagines 
that  all  are  religious,  &  himself  the  single  one  on 
earth  that  ever  broke  a  net. 

Now  hear  a  plain  fact :  Swedenborg  has  not  writ- 
ten one  new  truth : 

Now  hear  another :  he  has  written  all  the  old 
falshoods. 

And  now  hear  the  reason.  He  conversed  with 
Angels  who  are  all  religious,  &  conversed  not  with 
Devils  who  all  hate  religion,  for  he  was  incapable 
thro*  his  conceited  notions. 

Thus  Swedenborg  s  writings  are  a  recapitula- 
tion of  all  superficial  opinions,  and  an  analysis  of 
the  more  sublime ;  but  no  further. 

Have  now  another  plain  fact:  Any  man  of  me- 

69 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF 

chanical  talents  may  from  the  writings  of  Paracelsus 
or  Jacob  Behmen,  produce  ten  thousand  volumes 
of  equal  value  with  Swedenborg's,  and  from  those 
of  Dante  or  Shakespear,  an  infinite  number. 

But  when  he  has  done  this,  let  him  not  say  that 
he  knows  better  than  his  master,  for  he  only  holds 
a  candle  in  sunshine. 


70 


HEAVEN  AND  HELL 

A  MEMORABLE  FANCY 

ONCE  I  saw  a  Devil  in  a  flame  of  fire,  who 
arose  before  an  Angel  that  sat  on  a  cloud, 
and  the  Devil  uttered  these  words: 

The  worship  of  God  is.  Honouring  his  gifts  in 
other  men  each  according  to  his  genius,  and  loving 
the  greatest  men  best;  those  who  envy  or  calum- 
niate great  men  hate  God,  for  there  is  no  other  God. 

The  Angel  hearing  this  became  almost  blue, 
but  mastering  himself  he  grew  yellow,  &  at  last 
white  pink  &  smiling,  and  then  replied; 

Thou  Idolater,  is  not  God  One  ?  6  is  not  he  visible 
in  Jesus  Christ?  and  has  not  Jesus  Christ  given  his 
sanction  to  the  law  often  commandments,  and  are 
not  all  other  men  fools,  sinners,  &  nothings? 

The  Devil  answer'd :  bray  a  fool  in  a  morter 
with  wheat,  yet  shall  not  his  folly  be  beaten  out  of 
him:  if  Jesus  Christ  is  the  greatest  man,  you  ought 
to  love  him  in  the  greatest  degree;  now  hear  how 
he  has  given  his  sanction  to  the  law  of  ten  com- 
mandments: did  he  not  mock  at  the  sabbath,  and 
so  mock  the  sabbath's  God  ?  murder  those  who  were 
murder'd  because  of  him  ?  turn  away  the  law  from 
the  woman  taken  in  adultery?  steal  the  labor  of 
others  to  support  him  ?  bear  false  witness  when  he 
omitted  making  a  defence  before  Pilate?  covet 
when  he  pray*d  for  his  disciples,  and  when  he  bid 

71 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF  HEAVEN  &  HELL 
them  shake  off  the  dust  of  their  feet  against  such  as 
refused  to  lodge  them? 

I  tell  you,  no  virtue  can  exist  without  breaking 
these  ten  commandments:  Jesus  was  all  virtue,  and 
acted  from  impulse,  not  from  rules. 

When  he  had  so  spoken;  I  beheld  the  Angel, 
who  stretched  out  his  arms,  embracing  the  flame 
of  fire,  &  he  was  consumed  and  arose  as  Elijah. 

NOTE.  This  Angel,  who  is  now  become  a  Devil, 
is  my  particular  friend:  we  often  read  the  Bible  to- 
gether in  its  infernal  or  diabolical  sense,  which  the 
world  shall  have  if  they  behave  well. 

I  have  also :  The  Bible  of  Hell ;  which  the  world 
shall  have  whether  they  will  or  no. 


One  Law  for  the  Lion  &  Ox  is  Oppression. 


72 


A  SONG  OF  LIBERTY 


I 


I 


A  SONG  OF  LIBERTY 
I. 

THE  Eternal  Female  groan*d !  it  was  heard 
overall  the  Earth: 
2.  Albion's  coast  is  sick  silent;  the  Ameri- 
can meadows  faint ! 

3.  Shadows  of  Prophecy  shiver  along  by  the  lakes 
and  the  rivers,  and  mutter  across  the  ocean.  France 
rend  down  thy  dungeon; 

4.  Golden  Spain  burst  the  barriers  of  old  Rome; 

5.  Cast  thy  keys  O  Rome  into  the  deep  down 
falling,  even  to  eternity  down  falling, 

6.  And  weep! 

7.  In  her  trembling  hands  she  took  the  new  born 
terror  howling: 

8.  On  those  infinite  mountains  of  light  now  barr'd 
out  by  the  atlantic  sea,  the  new  born  fire  stood  be- 
fore the  starry  king ! 

9.  Flag'd  with  grey  brow'd  snows  and  thunder- 
ous visages  the  jealous  wings  wav'd  over  the  deep. 

10. The speary  hand  burned  aloft,unbuckled  was 
the  shield,  forth  went  the  hand  of  jealousy  among 
the  flaming  hair,  and  hurl'd  the  new  born  wonder 
thro'  the  starry  night. 

11.  The  fire,  the  fire,  is  falling ! 

12.  Look  up!  look  up!  O  citizen  of  London,  en- 
large thy  countenance!  O  Jew,  leave  counting 

75 


A  SONG  OF  LIBERTY 
gold  I  return  to  thy  oil  &  wine;  O  African!  black 
African!  (go  winged  thought,  widen  his  forehead.)         I 

13.  The  fiery  limbs,  the  flaming  hair,  shot  like  the 
sinking  sun  into  the  western  sea. 

i4.Wak*d  from  his  eternal  sleep,  the  hoary  ele-      | 
ment  roaring  fled  away; 

15.  Down  rush'd  beating  his  wings  in  vain  the 
jealous  king;  his  grey  brow'd  councellors,  thunder- 
ous warriors,  curl'd  veterans,  among  helms  and 
shields  and  charots,  horses,  elephants,  banners, 
castles,  slings,  and  rocks; 

16.  Falling, rushing,  ruining!  buried  in  the  ruins, 
on  Urthona's  dens; 

17.  All  night  beneath  the  ruins,  then  their  sullen 
flames  faded  emerge  round  the  gloomy  king. 

18.  With  thunder  and  fire :  leading  his  starry  hosts 
thro'  the  waste  wilderness  he  promulgates  his  ten 
commands,  glancing  his  beamy  eyelids  over  the 
deep  in  dark  dismay, 

19.  Where  the  son  of  fire  in  his  eastern  cloud, 
while  the  morning  plumes  her  golden  breast, 

20.  Spurning  the  clouds  written  with  curses, 
stamps  the  stony  law  to  dust,  loosing  the  eternal 
horses  from  the  dens  of  night,  crying :  Empire  is  no 
more !  and  now  the  lion  &  wolf  shall  cease. 


7^ 


A  SONG  OF  LIBERTY 


CHORUS 

Cthe  priests  of  the  Raven  of  dawn,  no  longer 
in  deadly  black,  with  hoarse  note  curse  the 
sons  of  joy.  Nor  his  accepted  brethren, 
whom,  tyrant,  he  calls  free:  lay  the  bound  or  build 
the  roof.  Nor  pale  religious  letchery  call  that  vir- 
ginity, that  wishes  but  acts  not ! 

For  every  thing  that  lives  is  Holy. 


n 


Here  ends  "The  Marriage  of  Heaven  and  Hell 
and  "A  Song  of  Liberty,"  by  William  Blake, 
as  transcribed  by  Francis  Griffin  Stokes, 
printed  at  the  Florence  Press, 
London,  &  published  by 
E.  P.  Dutton  &  Co. 
*  New  York 

P  mdccccxi 


79 


